Simple Tips On Writing Lyrics

Hey everybody! As some of you may know sometimes writing lyrics can be hard and there's a lot of questions. Like how should I start a song? How many verses should there be? Where should I put the chorus? Many of these are answered by one single line. Whatever you think would sound good or flow.
I'm going to show you first a basic song structure. This is only the lyrical structure nothing to do with anything more.

Intro verse
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Verse 3
Chorus
Verse 4
Outro verse

That's an easy and basic lyric structure. There are many different ways like hundreds of thousands. You can obviousl write a song however you feel.
I hear a lot of people say you need inspiration to write a song. I'm telling you right now that is not true. You can write a song whenever you feel like it doesn't matter if your inspired or not. All you have to do is have an idea and think to yourself, will you follow through and finish the song? Because if I have an idea for a song and I think to myself I might not finish it then I write it but if I give up on it I'll like just delete it. I say this just because you don't want an unfinished set of lyrics saying to yourself I'll finish it soon enough, soon enough and it will discourage you from writing a new song because your going to tell yourself to finish that one.
Anyways let's get started on the idea for a song. If your just starting out writing lyrics and stuff I would suggest not picking something that has affected your life. And yes I did say do not pick something that has affected your life atleast not in a really big way. I say this because if you do that first then you may think later you want to write it again you can do that but it just really akward to do so. Atleast for some it is. Anyways pick something you would want to write about and have a lot of ideas about. It doesn't really matter what as long as you think it's a set of lyrics that will get used and it's your kind of music. Examples of this are like if your like pop-punk then your going to want to write songs that are happy and like not really to heavy. Like you don't want to write a slayer, death metal kinda song and have it used for like say alternative because it will most likely end up sounding bad.
Ok so say you wanted to write like the intro verse to a screamo song. You want the lyrics to be kind of brutal and would sound good in an angry scream. For example say the verse is like the one below.
Sitting in the fiery pits of hell
Inside the darkness
Cold like most evil hearts
Sounds of pain and suffering
From inside the mind
It sounds brutal and would sound good in an angry scream maybe even in a slow calm vioce and slowly building up. Anyways your first line should usually be a hint of what the rest of the song or even that verse is about. Next you want to keep going on and build off of that. So your next verse would be kind of like explaining that or just adding more detail. Like the verse below.
My mind would drive a sane man crazed
And burn the feild where thewhole world grazed
The deepest thought inside is where do i go now
How do i reach a new low
You always want your lyrics to tell a small story. And always try and make your verses atleast three lines. It doesn't matter how long those lines are just try and make them more then three words. You don't have to make it have a rythming sceme or anything. I would also suggest reading a lot of lyrics you want to write songs for like this you would read stuff like Atreyu or another screamo band.
Now you always want your chorus to be catchy not flashy because if it's flashy then you won't get people to remember it or want to hear it alot. You want your chorus to be the main kind of verse in the song because you need it to explain what's kinda of happening and you can change slight things about your chorus as the song or lyrics progress. I'm not the greatest at writing chorus's but I can still write them it just takes some work. Now moving along you want to keep along with what your doing the main idea. Also always spend the most time on your chrous because it's the part people will hear the most and if the chorus is good people will remember the song more easily. Anyways an example of a chorus going along with what were doing right now is the verse below.
I can't stand being this way
Just ending up destroying and ending days
Leave my distress and insanity
You will be afraid don't you see
Run
Now since we've already covered verses were going to move straight onto the outro verse. Many people think the outro's the easiest because you can just repeat the chorus and fade. While that is true it is the easiest way but it doesn't always make for good lyrics. In the outro you kind of want to throw a curve ball I guess you could say. And like reveal something that would change the entire look and feel of the song. Like in the lyrics given so far (which are mine don't steal them allrights reserved)you could end it like the outro verse below.
I don't want to end up like you
Senial and hate filled
My gruesome dad, you willed me to this
Nothing left i'm willing to learn
Your a horrible teacher
I know how to be myself not you
See how you wouldn't really expect something like that. It's like you always have to grab attention and try and make it so you keep everything copisetic but still surprising. Also were mainly done but a few quick tips on writing and stuff. Write in an enviroment you like and feel confortable in. Don't write enless you feel like it. Always plan things out. You don't always need inspiration. If you are inspired take advantage and write. What people say is there opinion take every opinion with a grain of salt. No matter what if you have a passion for writing follow it. Last tip you do not have to write lyrics like this at all. You can write it the way you feel and the best way to write a song is to do what you think and do what you want.
Well that about wraps things up. Hope this helped you out atleast a little bit. Rate, comment all that if you want some help writing a song send me a message and I will help. If there's anything you think I missed please tell me I'll be sure to note it. Well thank you and rock on!

impressive lesson friend. i had some of those points before i started but have felt my writing needs a lesson or two so thank you for writing this. and keep up the great work.
p.s get those lyrics recorded!

suggestion,
try writing to a riff rather than getting the riff to suit your words, saves a lot of trouble,
although it may not be a compulsion, it certainly makes things easier.
Rhyming is NOT ALWAYS Necessary.
happy writing

CityUnderSeige wrote:
this guy has no Idea what he's doing. these lyrics are terrible, and dont fit any syllabal pattern at all.

Dude i completely agree with you, i looked back on these lyrics and just thot wtf was i thinking?? obviously some ppl like em so thats cool, also im amazed i didnt mention imagery, if u have an idea but cant put it on paper close your eyes, picture it, describe as if your describing it without giving away what your actually talking about, thats atleast how i do it now and then, also reading Cat's Cradle by vaughn something, itll **** with your mind some of the bokonism stuff in there, itll provoke your mind and thats wat u need, last thing never hurts to smoke a little before a writing sesh